Colombian Army Officer In Danger After Accusing General

December 3, 1999|By TOD ROBBERSON The Dallas Morning News

TUNJA, Colombia — A U.S.-trained Colombian army officer finds himself in a rare and potentially dangerous alliance with international human rights organizations after publicly accusing a senior commander of collusion with paramilitary groups.

Lt. Col. Castro Orozco, 39, says he fears for his family's safety because he refuses to withdraw his accusations against his former commander, Brig. Gen. Jaime Uscategui. He accuses Uscategui of ignoring repeated appeals for intervention when paramilitary groups began massacring dozens of civilians in areas under the general's control in 1997.

Uscategui, 52, was forced by government prosecutors to step down last week, but he denies all charges against him. He was arrested in May but was released two weeks ago pending a court-martial. Army spokesmen said they could not discuss the case.

International human rights groups and U.S. officials see the case as a key test of whether the Colombian army has changed its human rights record enough to justify an increased share of the nearly $300 million the government receives in U.S. military and law-enforcement aid. The Clinton administration says it wants to boost that aid to a record $1.5 billion next year.

"Up to now, there has never been a senior military official convicted of a human rights abuse in a military court," said Robin Kirk, a Colombia investigator at Human Rights Watch/Americas, who described the evidence against Uscategui and others under his command as "overwhelming."

Diplomats say they are awaiting resolution of the case to determine whether the army is truly changing its ways by punishing human rights abusers while protecting those with the courage to speak out against a longtime suspected alliance between army commanders and paramilitary groups.

Orozco said that fellow officers have labeled him a "traitor" and "deserter," but he refuses to back down. Instead of punishing him for challenging a senior officer, the army has promoted Orozco and given him a battalion command.

"I don't believe in military justice," Orozco said at his battalion headquarters in Tunja, 100 miles northeast of Bogota. "I've had some retired officers call to support me. Sometimes, people stop me on the street to thank me for speaking out. But inside the army, nobody is supporting me. Nobody."

Uscategui denies charges related to two paramilitary attacks that occurred in his zone of command in 1997.

Up to 41 people were killed, including civilians decapitated with chain saws.

In one case, paramilitary gunmen opened fire on a 54-member government law-enforcement commission that was attempting to seize a ranch purchased by convicted drug traffickers in San Carlos de Guaroa, in Meta province.

Uscategui, who could face four years in prison if convicted of the crime of "omission," or failure to carry out his constitutional duties, insists that he did order troops to intervene during the San Carlos de Guaroa attack, which occurred on Oct. 3, 1997. The troops arrived as the massacre was under way, and two army officers and five soldiers were killed in subsequent fighting.

An earlier attack, in the town of Mapiripan, also in Meta, occurred over a five-day period in July 1997. Even before the paramilitary members had begun killing civilians, Orozco said he had received intelligence that an attack was being planned.

About 120 paramilitary fighters had arrived at an airport in the town of San JosM-i del Guaviare shortly before the attack, unloading cases of weapons and equipment while two army sergeants were present.

Army investigators have recovered a two-page fax message that Orozco sent to Uscategui giving details of the gunmen's location and urging the emergency dispatch of troops by helicopter to repel them. Orozco said Uscategui ignored the recommendation and continued to reject his repeated telephone requests for help after the attacks had begun.

When the news media began reporting the massacre days later, Orozco said he received a telephone call from Uscategui ordering him to rewrite his original fax. He said the general told him that the new fax should discount intelligence reports of a paramilitary presence and minimize the threat posed to civilians. Orozco, who at the time had the rank of major, said he complied with the general's orders.

"I protected the general. I lied for the general," Orozco said. "The fear we lower officers have of our senior officers is tremendous. In the Colombian army, you never speak against a superior, even if he is wrong."

The colonel said he admitted the truth when he was confronted about a year ago by a government investigator who had recovered the original fax.

Uscategui denied Orozco's allegations in an interview with a radio network. He said he holds out hope that prosecutors "will take note of the true situation and that they will acknowledge my innocence."